Messalina: Empress of Rome
The Ancients
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The Legacy of Messalina
Messalina is transformed into this almost archetype of transgressive female sexuality. In languages like French, Messaline becomes a noun and an adjective to describe a woman who is dangerously sexual. She's used as an archetype for nymphomania as well in Victorian medical sources. And so Messalina becomes this image of this sort of all consuming and potentially destructive power of feminine sexual desire.
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